8/6/2019 Oru_Nashta_Vasantham

1/2

OruNashtaVasantham...

My family used to have a good collection of those old 'dinner plate' LP records long back. I remember the cover of

one record in particular. There were two young people on it and both of them looked very sad. I faintly recollectthinking that the girl looked very pretty despite the sadness and that the man looked like he would cry at any

moment. There was something so desperately gloomy about the young man that it made me wonder what the

movie could be about and if the man carried that burden of sadness in real life too. Somebody at home used to

play the songs all the time and unconsciously they got recorded in my heart.

Then, one May evening, I heard that the sad young girl had killed herself and late last night I heard that the man

with the incredibly sad face died. And weirdly, just a while before I heard about his death, I had been listening to

the songs from Ulkkadal after quite a long time. Once again I wondered if VenuNagavally did carry that touch of

sadness all his life.

I cannot honestly say that I was a big admirer of VenuNagavally, the actor. No, that would be my sister-in-law, who

had been a big fan of his since his AIR days. She had been smitten by his voice and cultured manner of speaking. I

think it was the miasma of sadness that hung around him that put me off. Moreover I think I was too young toreally enjoy the kind of movies he did, where he usually played what else, but one of the sad characters in the

movie.

He was either a luckless or spineless lover who never got his girl, or was the poor unemployed guy who never got a

break, or the son who brought nothing but shame to the familyalways a hapless guy trapped in a vicious circle. To

borrow Tennessee Williams words, the characters he played always burnt with the slow and implacable fires of

human desperation.

But despite the melancholic backdrops, and dejected faces, his movies had some absolutely beautiful songs and

more than anything else, I think I will remember VenuNagavally for his songs. Ok, I agree that ONV Kurup, MB

Sreenivasan and Dasettan had more to do with them than the actor, and it was only recently that I realised that a

bunch of my favorite songs were from movies that he had acted in.

My love affair with the songs from Ulkkadal that were etched into my 8-year-old mind from an old LP record

continues to this day and two of the songs from that movie, Nashtavasanthathin and EnteKadinjool find a place in

my list of all-time favorite songs. A third song on the list would be ChaithramChaayamChaalichu from Chillu

again a VenuNagavally film, although the song was not picturised on him.

However, it was as a director and script writer, that VenuNagavallys brilliance came through. Most of his movies

dealt with what I guess must have been very close to his heart friendship. The camaraderie that shines through

his characters is touching. I dont think anyone else has portrayed the depth of those bonds better, especially the

ones forged in campuses.

Sarvakalashala, an endearing ode to campus life is probably the best movie he ever made. There is a whole

generation that identifies itself with that movie, and the dialogues... they are still being quoted chapter and verse.

Can you forget NedumudiVenu going, EnikkuVishakkunnuLale, manushyane pole vishakkunnu after the powerfulrecitation of Kavalams kavitha, Athirukaakkummalayonnuthuduthe. He even makes fun of himself, calling

Chakkaras parody of the campus Bujji and his intellectual aakanullashramam a VenuNagavally line.

But I dont think he ever tried to hide behind any intellectual smoke screens. He was more a feeler than a

thinker and made movies with his heart. He thrived on nostalgia and seemed to have never left his college days

behind. That is why manassilennum campus jeevithamorunidhi pole

kaathusookshikkunnaaarkkum,Sarvakalashala continues to be the best campus movie ever.

8/6/2019 Oru_Nashta_Vasantham

2/2

Sukhamo Devi, a soulful love poem of a movie, also strikes a similar chord and much has been said about the

autobiographical elements in this directorial debut of VenuNagavally. He juxtaposed two different kinds of love in

the movie -the gentle, conventional, almost lyrical (maybe even painkili) love between the central pair of Nandan

and Devi and the adipoli, wild, whirlwind of a romance between Sunny and Tara. Nagavally makes a Hitchcock-

esque appearance in this movie to applaud Sunnys take on his unconventional love. The death of Sunny, thecharacter played by Mohanlal, is one of the most poignant screen deaths, one of those that just stay with you

forever.

Sarvakalashala and Sukhamo Devi which revolved around campus life and portrayed both young and mature love

in all its heart breaking beauty, bore testimony to one fact - that the man who directed those movies had known

love. Not just the thrill of its awakening and joy of its indulgence, but also the pain of its loss. The mute agony of

the love that never was.

Today, eulogies are being written about him, the actor, director, writer, and the avashakamukan. His death set

me thinking that inadvertently, he had been around in my growing up days too the songs from his movies that

had probably, set the tone for my choice in music and poetry because they had subconsciously entered my psyche,

the campus movies that resonated with what I felt, and the ties of friendship that he celebrated.

That is why, the news of his death makes me really sad a sense of loss for something somewhere, loss of a part

of my own childhood and youth perhaps.